As a leading Mid-Atlantic waste and recycling company, EnviroSolutions, Inc. operates in an inherently dangerous sector that demands safety, efficiency and top-tier customer service. The company’s “Service Drives Us” philosophy illustrates their commitment to working with commercial and industrial customers to craft customized and environmentally conscious solutions. With experience spanning ten years and billions of driving miles, the company has delivered countless solutions to their customers.  They have also seen firsthand that the dangerous nature of their operating environment demands a proactive approach to identifying and addressing risk. With these demands in mind, EnviroSolutions began their search for a video-based safety and analytics platform that would help reduce collision frequency and verify driver location.

Determined to find a solution that delivered real-world results through proactive risk management, EnviroSolutions road tested the SmartDrive® platform and another video-based safety product for two months. The SmartDrive solution was the clear choice for several reasons, including its intuitive user interface and advanced coaching workflows. “Selecting SmartDrive was an easy decision; it was far and away the best solution out there, commented Gary Hewes, vice president of operations support at EnviroSolutions. “The user interface is both detailed and easy to use; the coaching workflows enable us to intervene in a timely manner with driving-skill-improvement strategies that are on point, and the platform allows us to quickly view critical information at the site and company level. The fully managed service definitely sets it apart from other options out there.”

Knowing that their demanding and dangerous operating environment warrants a truly comprehensive solution, EnviroSolutions installed either dual- or 360-degree cameras to attain a complete view of what’s happening both on the road and in the cab. With this decision, the company is confident that they are best positioned to proactively protect and coach their drivers.

After the two-month trial, the SmartDrive platform proved to be a powerful safety and coaching solution for EnviroSolutions. Management next needed to convey that message to drivers. The SmartDrive system was introduced during a series of informational meetings that provided an open forum for drivers to explore how it would not only protect them, but also help them develop their skillsets.  Upon rollout, the SmartDrive platform quickly illustrated its worth by uncovering the most frequent driver-safety violations, such as using cell phones or not wearing seatbelts. Over time, as those most common infractions lessened, coaching sessions became shorter and focused instead on ways to raise safety scores even higher.

“The waste management industry is widely recognized as one of the most dangerous for employees,” Hewes commented. “The SmartDrive solution enables us to improve the safety of our drivers and other motorists through proactive risk management and a continuous focus on optimizing driver skills. SmartDrive 360 delivers a video safety program with an expanded view of the truck and driver, which maximizes our team’s visibility to what is happening on the road and the risks unique to our operating conditions, enabling us to capture the root cause of an event and then focus our coaching on what matters most.”

Maximizing the Value of their Investment

Results since implementation have been wide-reaching, impacting not only safety, but also customer service and sales. 

On the safety front, the company has greatly improved its visibility of both driver and asset location.  They have experienced multiple instances of accident exoneration and have seen a dramatic reduction in their accident rate. In fact, the number of driving hours between collisions has increased from 5,000 hours to 10,000 hours.

On the customer service and sales front, video captured by the SmartDrive program has helped the company have more fruitful communications with their customers. For example, videos of locked gates and vehicles blocking access to containers have shown customers why their pick-ups were missed, while videos of overflowing bins have illustrated the need for more frequent pick-ups. Hewes concluded, “SmartDrive has had a positive impact to our bottom line. Not only are we saving from a collision perspective, but we have also been able to grow our business. We’ve never been a company to rest on our laurels, and we’re always looking to deliver better results in customer service and safety. In light of the great progress we’ve made thus far, we’re already setting new goals for our team—we just can’t wait to see what we can achieve next with the technology.”

By delivering results on several fronts, the SmartDrive video-based safety and analytics platform has quickly had a measurable impact on EnviroSolutions’ business.